Ariane fails

Abstract

On September 10, 1982, a French Ariane rocket failed during launch from its maker's pads located in Kourou, Guiana, on the northern coast of South America. This was the second failure out of five attempted flights for the commercial rocket upon which the hopes and numerous payloads of ESA, the European Space Agency, are to ride. The European space community, including geophysical, commercial, and military interests, concludes that only three successes out of five attempts are not at all satisfactory (New Scientist, Sept. 16, 1982; Nature, Sept. 16, 1982).Ariane has been widely trumpeted as a strong competitor for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Delta and space shuttle launchers and as an instant, cheap solution to the problems of placing scientific and communications satellites into orbit. The costs of losing the fifth Ariane are high—on the order of $70 million, after insurance coverage. Doubts about using Ariane for future missions have been raised; when Ariane crashed into the Atlantic, it carried with it two satellites, the Marecs B, for marine communications, and the Sirio 2, an Italian telecommunications satellite. There are fears that EXOSAT, the European Space Agency's X ray astronomy observatory satellite may not make the planned flight launch window of November 1982.